not good... as the air attacks already shown today, there is another nav guard at Dili which wasn't picked up by my recon earlier... thought only the trashed unit that retreated from Lautern was there and it was a bad surprise for the 2nd USMC para bn...

flying A2G attacks as I don't want to risk an attack on my paras as halve of my unit is disabled and got only a good dozen combat squads left to fight... the other para btn is marching in from Lautern...

that was interesting... we have been unloading here for two days already and the whole convoy is more or less empty when an IJ strike suddenly shows up over the base... being only a level 1 airfield we only had 2 USAAF fighter sqd at the base to fly Cap but we also had the carriers sitting off the coast heavily supporting with leaking Cap... the carriers, SAG and ASW off the coast weren't spotted as Cuttlefish doesn't seem to fly naval search while the recon over Lautern picked up our convoy there... don't know if he ordered to fly a strike earlier and it just failed to go in and if there were more bombers/fighters ordered to strike... he would have had a good chance to do some serious damage with three times the bombers with more escorts attacking my amphib convoy but as it was only one bomber got through Cap, launched a torp (and scored a hit ) while then being shot down by flak...

my Cap is all but bullet prove and bigger strikes would cause trouble so my carriers are all but safe operating in range of LBA and a determined attack could end my offensive operations within a day... Lautern is heavily garissoned now, having 80,000 supplies at the base and will be built up to a level 9 airfield which will then support all following operations in the area...

CAP engaged: VF-2 with F4F-4 Wildcat (9 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (15 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 9 plane(s) intercepting now. 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 2 being recalled, 4 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 23 minutes 4 planes vectored on to bombers VF-3 with F4F-4 Wildcat (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (9 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 4 plane(s) intercepting now. 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 5 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 38 minutes 4 planes vectored on to bombers VF-42 with F4F-4 Wildcat (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (7 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 4 plane(s) intercepting now. 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 3 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 12 minutes 1 planes vectored on to bombers VF-6 with F4F-4 Wildcat (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (8 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 4 plane(s) intercepting now. 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 4 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 20 minutes 2 planes vectored on to bombers VF-8 with F4F-4 Wildcat (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (8 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 2 being recalled, 6 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 39 minutes 6 planes vectored on to bombers VF-71 with F4F-4 Wildcat (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (8 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 8 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 20000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 38 minutes VMF-111 with F4F-3 Wildcat (7 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (7 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 7 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 10000 Raid is overhead VMF-211 with F4F-3 Wildcat (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (6 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 3 being recalled, 3 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 10000 Time for all group planes to reach interception is 33 minutes 3 planes vectored on to bombers 49th FG/7th FS with P-40E Warhawk (4 airborne, 11 on standby, 0 scrambling) 4 plane(s) intercepting now. 1 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 2000 and 10000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 27 minutes 4 planes vectored on to bombers 12th FS with P-40E Warhawk (4 airborne, 11 on standby, 0 scrambling) 4 plane(s) intercepting now. 1 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 1000 and 15000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 28 minutes 1 planes vectored on to bombers

this is what intel brought up today:

Imperial Guards Division is located at Victoria Point(51,66).

sounds like a strange place for one of IJA's best divisions, perhaps in transit

the enemy took quite some losses today for more or less no gain, the xAP that was hit will make it after immediate repairs at the small port of Lautern... our operation to gain a foothold on Timor was a full success, the paras took the base as planned, the following reinforcing was unopposed except the strike today which was more or less held off my ships...

another IJA attack that fails miserably while disablements can be easily recovered but this takes time... I still wonder why he orders these attacks as long as it is obvious that my troops are well supplied... there just is no way to take Clark Field as long as my troops are fully supplied, NO WAY...

the air attacks on the rather big airfield of Koepang have never been really succesful... seems like most of the Japanese troops have been evacuated (by air) so we won't face a strong enemy there nor will the IJ be able to repair damage fast or launch bigger strikes from the base...

not a great result either... what goes for Koepang also goes for Rabaul, the garisson there is all but really strong... recon indicates some 15000 troops there so I guess we won't even face 10000, with a total av of roughly 250 maximum... probably just enough to prevent a really fast grab... main IJ base in the area is Manus, 25000 troops reported by daily recon, estimated 350-450 av plus support if not further reinforced...

as the army that was landed at Finshafen is moving in to Lae in the next days we ordered some Marine paras to take the dot base North of Lae to prevent a possible retreat of the IJA at Lae... the enemy at Lae is fully cut off and the troops there will be completely destroyed... estimated strenght there around 5000...

another round, same result... but this time most ships of this cruiser SAG are spotted by the sub but that won't matter much... the carriers and the escorting task forces are moving back to base to wait for the next bigger amphib operation which will start in a couple of days with the convoy arriving, picking up two div plus support to move to Luganville... enemy strenght there estimated around 15000, some 250+ av perhaps...

it was a short fight at Lae, rest of the 53rd Div is destroyed... there were quite some support squads still at the base... can't remember but I think we have destroyed two rgts of 53rd Div on New Caledonia...

Apparently the Japanese used the interval to fit their gunners with glasses . . . or maybe the Allied troops are forgetting their umbrellas?

thought they may have switched some units first, using more artillery and less mortars but when looking at the troops there I can't see anything exceptional. I sure don't like seeing squads destroyed on my side though, even if this result looks far more realistical to me than all the other dozens of bombardments we've seen at Clark with the Japanese taking the higher casualties while they are bombarding.

already another deliberate attack at Clark Field which was quite surprising to me... engineers took down a fort level once more and overall casualty rates weren't satisfying at all to be honest... not that there would be any danger of losing the base anytime soon but this probably is the worst result so far defending against an attack...

sending those destroyers to Pearl Harbour to escort the BBs there back to the West Coast. All BB damaged during the attack on 7 Dec 41 have been fully repaired and undergone all available upgrades already. They will move together with a West Coast convoy to Australia. Primary use of the slow battlewaggons will be invasion cover... the sub of course was nowhere in danger of being damaged, let alone being sunk...

then attacks a destroyer, misses and vanishes... escorts are plain useless, the only slight chance to actually damage/sink a sub is in shallow waters, otherwhise a sub is 99,5% safe from attacks... as it stands so far, I seriously doubt that neither the Allied nor the Japanese side will come close to the real life sinkings of subs, we are 10 months into the war and Allied ASW failed to sink a single IJN sub despite having probably a hundred chances to do so...

I thought the Jap subs were impossible to kill/damage for a while too. Then something happened gradually and I started getting ALOT of hits in. Don´t know if it was experience reaching a certain level or some magic upgrade....

WOW! What about that? I couldn't believe my eyes when this popped up, Cuttlefish ordered a naval bombardment of a base with one of the best coast defenses on Earth and what happens? N O T H I N G... it's crazy that the game pretty much fails when it comes down to modeling coast defense, how four enemy BB can bombar Bataan from 15000 yards without the CD doing anything can't be explained with die rolls anymore, the chances for this would be nil... the 28 shots mentioned in the cr may be FOW or a fridgin joke, the end result definately is one...

I mentioned in my email to CF that I was amazed he would dare to bombard Bataan and that the result is just showing how much the game fails in modelling CD and Cuttlefish said he was amazed how well this worked...

again, I can only comment this as a f*cking joke... before anyone mentions supply, there are 10000 tons of supply at Bataan and the unit is of course fully supplied and undisrupted when the enemy BB show up...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Korps Marechausee Battalion, at 46,77 , near Medan

considering a detection level of 5/9 and the relatively low number of 4E this must be the best 4E attack of the war so far... this is part of preparation of our invasion of Luganville with our carriers closing followed by our invasion convoy two days behind... 2 US Div plus support are tasked to take the base, 20000 enemy troops reported sitting on Luganville...

I thought the Jap subs were impossible to kill/damage for a while too. Then something happened gradually and I started getting ALOT of hits in. Don´t know if it was experience reaching a certain level or some magic upgrade....

Now a days (4/43) I usually get a lot of penetrating hits.

don't know what and if something will change, the upgrades shouldn't be much of a reason as my DD mostly already have their best ASW rating. Further upgrades at best increase the ammo for the DC launchers but when my DD actually do drop some DC they fail to even damage enemy subs, not even achieving near misses. My DD won't really increase their exp ratings until newly arrivals in 44 with really high exp.

But thinking about exp, I am also using quite some British DD with high exp and ASW ratings off Australia's coast which engaged enemy subs on a regular basis but also to no effect.

Are you also playing a Babes version? In stock, I had no problem to harm IJN subs.

Do you know of any tweaks to Allied ASW in the Babes? I might have missed it but I did not think it was touched. Only the Japanese super E as far as I know.

I agree with the CD results at Baatan. Pretty sad. But it has always been that if you do not set "escorts to bombard" then your surface ships just seem to be immune to even the largest CD guns. Very frustrating. CD guns seem to work a bit better with invasion defense.

I have never been satisfied with how easy it is to conduct shore bombardment.

WOW! What about that? I couldn't believe my eyes when this popped up, Cuttlefish ordered a naval bombardment of a base with one of the best coast defenses on Earth and what happens? N O T H I N G... it's crazy that the game pretty much fails when it comes down to modeling coast defense, how four enemy BB can bombar Bataan from 15000 yards without the CD doing anything can't be explained with die rolls anymore, the chances for this would be nil... the 28 shots mentioned in the cr may be FOW or a fridgin joke, the end result definately is one...

I mentioned in my email to CF that I was amazed he would dare to bombard Bataan and that the result is just showing how much the game fails in modelling CD and Cuttlefish said he was amazed how well this worked...

I have to agree completely -- something in AE needs fixing. (has any Japanese player ever tried a naval bombardment of Singapore?)

< Message edited by Capt. Harlock -- 8/30/2012 8:50:16 PM >

_____________________________

Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

Do you know of any tweaks to Allied ASW in the Babes? I might have missed it but I did not think it was touched. Only the Japanese super E as far as I know.

I agree with the CD results at Baatan. Pretty sad. But it has always been that if you do not set "escorts to bombard" then your surface ships just seem to be immune to even the largest CD guns. Very frustrating. CD guns seem to work a bit better with invasion defense.

I have never been satisfied with how easy it is to conduct shore bombardment.

Babes has tweaked all ASW, not only the super E. As it turns out though, I have not been able to sink a single sub in nearly a year of fighting and my destroyers won't get any better (at least not those 100 that are on map already). If there is a trigger at some point that changes something, I got no clue, if there isn't one and it goes on like this then I will not be able to sink more than 3-5 subs in 4 years.

Do you know of any tweaks to Allied ASW in the Babes? I might have missed it but I did not think it was touched. Only the Japanese super E as far as I know.

I agree with the CD results at Baatan. Pretty sad. But it has always been that if you do not set "escorts to bombard" then your surface ships just seem to be immune to even the largest CD guns. Very frustrating. CD guns seem to work a bit better with invasion defense.

I have never been satisfied with how easy it is to conduct shore bombardment.

Babes has tweaked all ASW, not only the super E. As it turns out though, I have not been able to sink a single sub in nearly a year of fighting and my destroyers won't get any better (at least not those 100 that are on map already). If there is a trigger at some point that changes something, I got no clue, if there isn't one and it goes on like this then I will not be able to sink more than 3-5 subs in 4 years.

WOW! What about that? I couldn't believe my eyes when this popped up, Cuttlefish ordered a naval bombardment of a base with one of the best coast defenses on Earth and what happens? N O T H I N G... it's crazy that the game pretty much fails when it comes down to modeling coast defense, how four enemy BB can bombar Bataan from 15000 yards without the CD doing anything can't be explained with die rolls anymore, the chances for this would be nil... the 28 shots mentioned in the cr may be FOW or a fridgin joke, the end result definately is one...

I mentioned in my email to CF that I was amazed he would dare to bombard Bataan and that the result is just showing how much the game fails in modelling CD and Cuttlefish said he was amazed how well this worked...

I have to agree completely -- something in AE needs fixing. (has any Japanese player ever tried a naval bombardment of Singapore?)

have seen bombardments of Singapore and CD fire on minesweepers that accidentally entered the hex. Have seen the guns firing at the bombardment TF and do some damage as well as not doing anything as above. All minesweeping attempts have been obliberated, without exception.

Problem for me is, coast defenses like Bataan, Singapore, Hawaii or all the major installations on Japan should be a major threat literally everytime, not only if you hit the super jackpot once in a while. These installations were so potent that noone back then would be seriously thinking about engaging them and in the game, you see them doing absolutely nothing at all so many times it just makes me sick. While the BBs fired their secondary batteries on Bataan, the CD there (having dozens medium and heavy guns) just watched the enemy lobbing in shells. A BB TF doing something like this, getting away without a scratch is just plain wrong fantasy.

I´m not playing Babes in the game I was referring to. But I checked the sunk list for Jap subs and I had 2 sunk (total and not counting midgets) before July 42. After that something happened and I started sinking about 3-5 per months with 4 in July 42 and a record 5 in March 43.

Not all of those are actually sunk of course but its still a pretty good indication of something happening in July 42. Or it could be just a strange fluke. But lately it has been death for any of his subs to show up. Last turn I had a Jap sub receiving 2 penetrating hits. I guess that would be pretty deadly for any sub.